VINNIES HAND-ME-UPS STUDENT REPORT

On Thursday, 23 May, a student delegation from Year 5 visited the North Wollongong Vinnies site, and toured the store, hearing from representatives of the different areas of Vinnies, and learning about the importance of good quality donations. We were

fortunate to have Peter Cooney, from the Gwynneville Conference explaining his role and that of the members of the Gwynneville Conference in giving others from our local area a ”hand up”.

The students learnt that – donating good quality items to Vinnies is good for the people in need and the environment. The donations help to get money to assist with the purchase of food, mattresses etc and to recycle, reuse and reduce landfill.

There is a dark side to donating. Across all stores in the Wollongong Diocese it costs over $160000 a year just to get rid of rubbish. About 50% of this is illegal dumping, and about 50% are donations that can’t be used. Tonnes of waste going into landfill.

Many Vinnies volunteers have to get rid of a whole skip bin each week and it costs about $160 each time to get the skip bin emptied. That’s the equivalent of one weeks’ worth of food and groceries for a family of four!

That’s why everything that is donated must be clean and of good quality.

 IF YOU WOULDN’T GIVE IT TO A FRIEND THEN DON’T GIVE IT TO VINNIES!

The students will be conducting a week-long fundraising effort to collect as many good quality items that will fit in the Vinnies Bin, that will be in our school grounds from Monday 17/6 to Friday 21/6.

Below is a guide for you. So get a bag together and send it in so that we can Hand it on to Vinnies.

SAVE THE DATE